


Bonding over Braiding

by Justanotherfangirl



Series: Critical Role Relationship Week [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Critical Role Relationship Week, Gen, caleb the hair stylist lmao, man this one was fun!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 17:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14982026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Justanotherfangirl/pseuds/Justanotherfangirl
Summary: Caleb and Yasha talk; Caleb fixes Yasha’s hair.Critical role relationship week day 3!





	Bonding over Braiding

**Author's Note:**

> Shit title but I couldn’t think of anything oh well!
> 
> This was one I was really excited about :D

It was a quiet night. The ground was still damp from the rain that had fallen the day before, sparkling in the moonlight. Caleb shifted uncomfortably where he was leaning against a tree. Yasha sat next to him, twisting her sword in her hands, watching how it glinted in the faint light. The rest of the Mighty Nein snored peacefully, exhausted by the fight they had had with some forest creatures just before settling down for the night. Caleb yawned, blinking quickly to try to clear the fog of sleep from his brain.

“Tired?” Yasha asked. Before Caleb had a chance to reply, he yawned again. Yasha chuckled, then struggled to fight back a yawn herself.

“ _Ja,_ I guess we all are.”

Yasha nodded. The following silence was awkward, as most of Caleb’s interactions were, but not unfriendly. Caleb cleared his throat.

“You, ah, did a good job. Back there. Friend.” He winced. He was pretty bad at this.

“You too, Caleb,” Yasha replied in her soft, smooth voice. “I like it when you, do that thing?” She moved her hands in a clumsy imitation of the motion Caleb used to cast Enlarge. “To make me big?”

He smiled. “ _Ja,_ well, I think my talents are probably better spent on you all, so you can hit things very hard, or cut off some heads.”

She laughed again, just as quiet as her voice. It was almost startling to her such a soft, almost song-like voice come from her imposing form. “I appreciate it.”

“ _Ja,_ and so does Beau,” Caleb muttered before he could stop himself. Yasha gave him a quizzical look. “I- I mean, when I use that spell on her. Make her big. _Ja._ She appreciates it. When. I do that spell. On her.” Caleb cleared his throat again, not looking at her. 

Yasha continued looking at her sword, apparently oblivious to the awkwardness Caleb just created. She twisted it back and forth so that the dim light glanced off of it into the camp. There was just enough moonlight for Caleb to get a good look at her hair; one of her braids was coming loose, the beads in it threatening to spill onto the grass at any second.

“Yasha, your hair is a bit messed up,” he said without thinking. She glanced at him as he pointed it out. Caleb watched as she fumbled behind her head for a minute or two, finally dropping her hands into her lap with a sigh.

“I’ll get Molly to do it for me in the morning,” she said. “He usually braids my hair anyway.”

“Can you not braid?”

“No, it’s just hard to braid your own hair when you can’t see it. Molly and I used to take turns braiding each other’s hair back in the circus, but we haven’t had the chance in awhile.”

Caleb suddenly spoke up, not thinking about the words as they fell from his mouth. “I can braid your hair for you.”

Yasha gave him a disbelieving look. “Can you?”

Caleb nodded. “ _Ja,_ I think so, and if I fuck it up Mollymauk can fix it in the morning.”

Yasha scooted over to him without another word. She sat cross-legged in front of him; Caleb had to get up to his knees to reach the top of her head. As he stared down at her hair, he panicked a little, both at the prospect of messing up her hair, and at the memories that were bubbling to the surface. 

Caleb had never had a sister. He had always wanted a younger sister as a child, someone to defend from bullies and look after and protect, but his parents never had another child. His mother never had a daughter whose hair she could braid, but she used to put her own hair up every now and then. Usually she did this very early, before going to milk the cows and feed the chickens. Caleb was supposed to be asleep, but he liked to watch her hands move; it was almost like magic, the way her fingers nimbly tucked the hair under and over, picking up hair and adding it to the braid as she went.

Astrid finally showed him how to braid after they had known each other for a couple months. It still felt almost magical to Caleb, almost like creating a work of art that one could wear. He was terrible at it, but Astrid let him use her hair as practice anyway.

Caleb came back into himself and saw his hands shaking.

“Caleb?” Yasha asked, concerned.

“It’s fine. Just... it’s fine.”

He started combing through the braid, setting the beads beside him in the grass as he went. Yasha’s hair was coarse and thick, but surprisingly untangled. As he started braiding, he heard himself talking; he sounded like a stranger to his own ears.

“When I was younger, my... my mother would brush my hair like this. I was little, four or five. She would wash my hair and sit down with me and take a comb, an old, cheap comb that she used for her own hair, and brush the tangles out. This... just reminds me of that,” he finished lamely, tying off the braid with the small bit of cloth Yasha provided. He sat back, admiring his work; it wasn’t as pretty as before, but Caleb thought it would suffice.

“Thank you, Caleb,” Yasha said. Her voice was softer than usual as her fingers felt the braid. He simply nodded.

The silence that followed wasn’t awkward, but companionable. They sat and watched the sunrise together. Caleb didn’t know why, but he smiled as Yasha continued twisting her blade, back and forth, back and forth.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos always appreciated <3


End file.
